Eur. Phys. J. B 58, 231-236 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2007-00236-x

Magnetohydrodynamic properties of incompressible Meissner fluids

¹ TFVS, Universiteit Antwerpen, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B, 2020 Antwerpen, Belgium
² Lyman Laboratory of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

Corresponding author: ^a jacques.tempere@ua.ac.be

Received: 22 June 2007
Published online: 8 September 2007

Abstract

We consider a superconducting material that exists in the liquid state, more precisely, in which the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect persists in the liquid state. First, we investigate how the shape of such a hypothetical Meissner liquid will adapt to accomodate for an applied external field. In particular, we analyse the case of a droplet of Meissner fluid, and compute the elongation of the droplet and its quadrupole frequency as a function of the applied field. Next, the influence of an applied field on the flow of the liquid is studied for the case of a surface wave. We derive the dispersion relation for surface waves on an incompressible Meissner fluid. We discuss some candidate realizations of the Meissner fluids and for the case of a superconducting colloid discuss which regime of wave lengths would be most affected by the Meissner effect.